


The Pirates of My Past

by Hippiebuckydrarry



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, M/M, Minstry fleet first mate Draco, Pansy owns a bar, Pirate Captain Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-01-30 03:04:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12644859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hippiebuckydrarry/pseuds/Hippiebuckydrarry
Summary: Harry Potter is a notorious pirate captain, more commonly know as Captain Evans. He has been running from his tramatic childhood and getting fabulously wealthy along the way. The only thing missing is that he doesn't have someone to share it all with. And then a ship wreck sets his and his crews life on a whole new path, where he will discover the answers to the questions from his childhood he didn't know he was asking. In which Pansy Parkinson owns a bar, the Weasley's are all pirates, and something magical and dangerous is lurking in the shadows.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was betad by my good friend R, but it was super rushed because I just wanted to post it. Any mistakes left are mine and mine alone. I will try to update as frequently as possible but I am a full time student so it will be super hit or miss with me. There are some mentions of violence but most of it happens off screen or is mentioned in passing. Also, I am now on tumblr so go give me a follow if you would like. :) : hippiedrarry.tumblr.com

The lucky thing about being a pirate is that ship wrecks are common place, and I was well equipped to handle them. One unlucky thing about being a pirate is that you get so well equipped at handling them is that you have lived through several of them. After the most recent one, the members of my crew and I had managed to find a long boat intact. The unlucky thing was that I now had no ship, and a captain without a ship is useless.  
So now, I sat in a pub drowning my woes in rum.  
"The great Captain of the Red Haired Lady is sitting in my pub, drowning his grief in drink while his crew mourns without him." The bartender said sitting next to me.  
"Shut it, Parkinson." I snarled, swigging another gulp. "Shouldn't you be snogging some member of said crew?"  
"No, mourning snogs are not as great as ‘I have just been out to sea for months and you are the first thing with boobs I have seen in months’ snogs." She said with a nod toward the cluster of weary sailors crowded around a table, swirling glasses of liquor and looking beaten down. She licked her lips and adjusted her cleavage in her low cut dress, eyeing the wearing batch of people in spite of her earlier statement.  
"My ship is gone. Tell me, Pansy, what is a captain without a ship?" I asked leaning toward her choosing to ignore her last comment, my lips parted slightly. She laughed slowly and leaned in too, so that we were almost touching.  
"Sad. And you and I both know that I am not the person you want to be kissing." She said coyly. I grinned.  
"Ah, you have heard the rumors about me though. I am not particular on gender." I murmured. We leaned closer, our lips brushing against each other in the lightest of kisses, and then the door to her pub flew open. She gasped and shoved me back ward, so that my chair knocked back into the corner I was seated near. I frowned at her until I noticed who had entered. Three naval officers walked in, removing their hats and walking toward the bar. Pansy stood quickly and hurried to serve them, hiking a smile on her face as she scurried behind the long wooden counter. I pulled my hat onto my head, tilting it over my eyes enough to avoid being recognized, and leaned deeper into the shadows, crossing my ankles on the table and folding my arms, by all appearances looking the part of the sleeping drunk.  
"I'll not be having trouble in my pub lads. So you can have a drink or you can leave." Pansy reached behind her and swatted at a wooden sign that stated all fights would be moved outside and drinks wouldn’t be served to any brawlers.  
"We actually have a few questions and no intension of starting any fight with anyone." The tallest man said leaning on the bar, his neat blonde hair shining slightly in the light. "We heard that in the last storm the pirate Evan's ship went down, we were wondering if you had any information about the wreck." I clenched my hand around the bottle I held and tried to hold my tongue. Pansy's lip curled.  
"You boys know that this pub serves pirates too? Here is not the place to be asking about Captain Evans!" She snarled. The men looked amongst themselves.  
"Listen, we are sent on a venture from the Ministry. And let’s just say if Captain Evans went down with his ship everything will go much smoother." The man, who was clearly the leader, said leaning closer to Pansy, elbow on the bar. Pansy eyed him for a moment.  
"I have heard nothing of Captain Evans." She said simply before pouring mugs of beef for them, they all sat down on stools and started talking quietly amongst themselves. Pansy casually walked through the bar caring a pitcher of ale. She shot me a meaningful glance and then went over to my crew, where she perched on one of their laps, reached for their mugs, and whispered something. They all got up and quietly filed out of the pub. As she passed back by she whispered  
"Go, I'll distract them." And then she went back to the men, and began shamelessly flirting, leaning forward to display her breasts and twitching her dark shining curls off her shoulders. I stood and carefully slipped out of the bar.  
"What's the plan Captain?" Ginny Weasley asked softly, stepping forward from where the crew had gathered in the alley.  
"We are going to steal a ship." I said grinning and striding off toward the docks. 

 

When daylight spilled over the horizon, my crew and I were stowed away in the hold of the Ministry's ship, the Serpents Shadow. We were all tucked in between supplies, my red headed crew members wearing bandanas and scarfs to help us blend into the gloom. I had also sent Neville Longbottom as a scout to pretend to join up and then alert us when the time was right.  
"Alright men! Take your positions! We need to be underway. And tonight men, we toast the demise of Captain Evans!" Someone shouted from the deck above. There was a cheer following these words and I scowled, casting a gentle glare around as my crew members tensed.  
An hour later the ship sailed out of the port and headed for open seas, creaking slightly as the wind filled the sails.  
"Captain, when do we strike?" Ron, my first mate whispered, from just behind me.  
"Tonight, when Longbottom fetches us." I breathed back.  
All day we listened to the men above run about the deck completing various orders. By the time night fell, my crew was restless and stiff. But, except for a few close calls, no one but Longbottom knew we were aboard. A few hours after nightfall, we heard all the men troop down to the deck below us to go to bed, their lanterns casting odd shadows around the room as they passed us. Only one man paused, and lifted his lantern to peer into the murky darkness around the barrels we were hidden amongst. My entire crew held their breath, but then someone below shouted and the man continued on down to bed.  
"I do not think much of a Captain who makes his crew sleep on the lowest deck." Hermione Granger hissed into the dark. I rolled my eyes, she was a pirate with a cause, always with a cause.  
"Captain will either force him to surrender or kill him so don't worry." Ron reassured her. He opened his arms to her and she shifted closer so he could hold her. I felt a pang of loneliness, crouched there in the dark, my legs screaming in protest. Being a pirate was a rather lonely existence, sure I was surrounded by my crew, most of whom I considered to be family, but the only romance I ever received was in dark rooms in discreet brothels with people who, if paid enough, would not breathe a word of who their customer had been. However, it would be nice to have someone in my arms at night, someone who I could show the ocean to, someone to share everything I had with.  
My musings were interrupted when Neville appeared.  
"Captain? Captain?" He called softly. I stood slowly, feeling my legs pop and walked toward him.  
"The Captain of this ship just went to bed in his cabin. There is a small guard posted, and the first mate is at the helm, he's the man from Pansy's." Neville whispered. I nodded.  
"Good man. Take the twins, Gin, and whoever else you need down to subdue the crew. Remember, quietly as possible, and give the option as always." Neville nodded and started down the stairs toward the sleeping crew, followed by the twins, Ginny, and Charlie, all of whom grinned at me and pulled out their swords. I jerked my head at Ron and Hermione. They stood and walked toward me.  
"Hermione, take Cho, Seamus and Dean up top and deal with the patrol. Ron, help keep the First Mate busy."  
Ron and Hermione both grinned. Hermione motioned toward the remaining crew members and headed up to the deck.  
At first Ron and I stood in silence waiting. It only took a moment. And then there was a scream: "Pirates!"  
I grinned at Ron, hefted my sword and stormed on deck. Hermione and her group were all fighting a man from the Navy and the panicked first mate was rushing toward us, grey eyes wide. Ron laughed and charged forward. The men’s swords collided in a harsh metal clang as ginger met blonde. I chuckled and walked into the captain’s quarters. The captain, being the scoundrel that he was, slept on in his bunk. I sat down in a chair, propped my feet on the desk, and removed my hat.  
"Well well well, Captain Malfoy, this is a surprise for both of us." I snarled. The sleeping man jumped and turned to me with wide eyes.  
"Captain Evans." He whispered.  
"Ah, good. We are already acquainted." I said smirking, running my thumb along the blade of my sword.  
"How… how? We saw no ship??" He cried scrambling up.  
"Oh it was easy really. You see, we sent a fake deserter. Neville Longbottom, you know him. Well he distracted your crew and mine climbed the ropes and stowed away." I explained.  
"But, I don't understand, your ship sank." He said, shifting slightly.  
"Ah Lucius, I am a pirate. I got all my crew on a long boat and off the boat. And then onto yours." I grinned. Lucius looked nervous, and started edging toward the door.  
"Ah, Lucius why are you making this difficult. Surely you have heard of the bargain I offer every captain?" I inquired, still not standing, but tracking the other man's every move.  
"I will never serve under a pirate!" He spat.  
"You understand that it’s serve me or death." I said standing finally. He was taller than me but I was more experienced in a sword fight and had not just been sleeping.  
"I will cut you to ribbons." He snarled.  
"Ah, Lucius." I sighed and suddenly lunged at him, catching him off guard. Lucius barely had time to draw his own sword. "What was that about cutting me to ribbons?" I grinned, pushing my blade against his and backing him against the wall. With an easy twist of my arm I had his sword out of his hand and my own against his chest.  
"Any last words, Captain Malfoy?"  
"My son, spare my son." He breathed, fear flaring in his grey eyes.  
"Your son?" I asked curiously, pausing briefly.  
"Yes. My first mate is my son. Please spare him." He begged.  
"Last chance, Lucius, you can surrender to me and join your crew when they are dumped on an island or join me." I offered, pressing closer. “Your son will be given the same option.”  
"I will never surrender to or join a pirate." He snapped.  
"How unfortunate for you.”

I stepped out of the captains quarters a few minutes later to find most of the crew secured in two groups. However the First Mate and Ron were still fighting, sweat pouring off of both men. I jumped in quickly and had the blonde on his back against the deck, sword tip pointed at his throat.  
"Your Captain is dead. He refused to surrender or join us, and he chose his fate. I suggest you all choose differently." I snapped.  
"You killed my father?" The First mate asked from where I had him pinned.  
"An unfortunate drawback from my job." I said smiling. He stared at me, his grey eyes wide in disbelief.  
"Filthy pirate!" He snarled. I grinned at him.  
"True. Charlie!" I cried. The stocky redhead sauntered up to us and grinned.  
"My he's a pretty one, isn't he Captain?" Charlie said with a grin. He leaned on my shoulder and leered down at the blonde.  
"Aye. And I did promise his Daddy we would spare him. So, I think to the brig with this one." I said. The man's grey eyes widened even further.  
"What? I thought I had a choice." He said, panic evident on his features.  
"Ah, you’re to pretty to be a pirate." I murmured, as Charlie hauled the man to his feet. I kept the sword pointed at him, and used my free hand to tuck a strand of blonde hair behind his ear. He flinched and watched me warily.  
"Alright, Charlie, take him down." I said grinning. The man didn’t fight as he was led below deck.  
Only one man joined our crew from the officers. Blaise Zabini, who seemed to think that life as a pirate was better than death at the hands of one. Everyone else was hauled below deck and kept under constant watch until we found an island to maroon them on. We never left people in dangerous places, usually merchant ships picked them up before too long, not that they knew that.  
My crew spent the next day celebrating and getting drunk. Blaise fit right in with the twins and the three were playing cards around a barrel before long. We had buried Lucius at sea and now I stood at the helm with Ron and Hermione. Ron had his arms around Hermione and they were looking out over the water.  
"Harry, we have something to ask you." Hermione said softly. I turned and looked at her quizzically.  
"Harry um, we want to get married. And we were wondering, if after we drop the crew off, would you marry us?" Hermione asked.  
I grinned.  
"Of course! I'd be honored." I smiled at the two of them. Ron in his plain black breeches and loose cotton shirt, with Hermione in her plain brown dress, both with wild hair and eyes. I grinned at my two best friends, and stepped over to let them take the wheel.  
"I am going to go bring food to our prisoner." I murmured. The couple didn’t look up and when some of my crew brought out their fiddles, and other instruments Ron and Hermione started to dance, slowly spinning in the fading light. I sighed, feeling the wave of loneliness again. I collected a plate of food and bottle of rum and made my way below deck.  
The brig was gloomily lit from the portholes along each wall. There were six cells, each big enough to accommodate several people, not very comfortably but it was a brig after all.  
The blonde haired man was sitting in the middle cell on the left side, his blue coat had been removed. He was sitting on the floor in his brown pants and white shirt hanging around him. His blonde hair hung around his face and I could tell he was crying. His knees were pulled to his chest and his arms were wrapped around his legs. He reached a hand up and swiped at his eyes.  
"Have you come to stare at me while you eat or is there a reason you are here, Captain?" He spat, disdain dripping from the word Captain. I sighed and brought the plate and bottle over, I set them on the ground and slid them through the bars.  
"A pirate Captain brought me food?" He asked, surprise evident in his red rimmed grey eyes. I chuckled and sat down opposite him. He surveyed the food and shoved the bottle out of his cell.  
"I don't drink that blasted stuff." He murmured. I chuckled.  
"More for me!" I grinned before taking a swig of the rum.  
He watched me warily, and didn’t touch the food.  
"Go on, eat." I said.  
"You poisoned it." He said simply. I gaped at him for a moment and then roared with laughter.  
"I would never poison you. Waste of treasure and it’s cowardly. If I wanted you dead, I'd give you a sword and fight you for it. It isn’t poison. Eat." I explained, leaning back against the bars behind me. The blonde raised an eyebrow.  
"The great Captain Evans is drinking with a prisoner instead of celebrating with his crew?" He asked.  
"We aren’t here to talk about me. I don't even know your fist name. I know your surname, Malfoy." I said watching him carefully rip the bread I'd brought him into small pieces.  
"And why should I tell you?" He inquired, his red rimmed eyes guarded.  
"Because nothing happens to you without my say so." I stood slowly and downed more rum. I paused and waited for him to say something. When he was silent, I climbed back to the deck and went into the captain’s quarters. I packed most of the things from Lucius that I didn’t want into a trunk that I shoved into a corner.  
My crew partied into the early hours of the morning, but I sat on the low wood bed, drinking away the memories of my past that left a bitter taste on my tongue.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! I am back with another chapter! This one is rather short but hopefully some of the other ones will be a little bit longer. Thank you all for reading!

"Captain, Captain?" I groaned and buried my face in the pillow.   
"Captain?" This time the call was followed by a thump on the door.   
"Go away." I called, trying to ignore the throbbing of my head.   
"Captain we are at the island you requested we would leave the Ministry crew." Hermione's weary voice called again.   
"Ah, blast it 'Mione. I'm up." I snapped. She sighed and then her boots clicked softly on the deck as she walked away. I stood shakily and changed into a fresher pair of breeches and cleanish white shirt. They were stolen from the crew member’s supplies, all of Lucius’ pretentious over coats and decorated military jackets were folded in the trunk of stored in the small closet in the wall. I stood in front of the mirror and looked at my mess of black hair. It had grown long and wild during my time at sea. I picked up the hair brush Lucius had left (I never bother with hairbrushes much) and pulled it through my hair a few times, wincing slightly, and then tied the usual red scarf around my forehead. I opted to stay barefoot but grabbed my sword, securing it around my waist. I stepped onto deck and took a moment to squint at the sun in disdain.   
"Harry! You look terrible." Hermione cried rushing toward me and feeling my forehead. I brushed her off.   
"We have a job to get done. And then I would like to speak with Zabini. Bring the crew up!" I cried. Hermione sighed and nodded to Ron, scowling at me all the while.   
"What about the First Mate?" He called. I thought for a moment and grinned.   
"Bring him up, but he is not to go with the others." Ron nodded and hurried below deck, while Hermione shot me a questioning look.   
When the crew was assembled, and Malfoy was standing off to the side looking apprehensive, I raised my hand to bring silence to the murmuring people.   
"You have one last chance. Join my crew, help me sail the Serpent's Shadow, and enjoy the riches, wine and women a pirate’s life has to offer." I called waving my arm wide at my crew, a few of whom grinned.   
"Ha! Serve under a drunk captain boys, what could be better?" Malfoy spat, sarcasm dripping from every word. My crew froze, eyes darting to me with apprehension written all over their faces.   
"Oh no." Hermione muttered. I spun around and stalked up to him.   
"You want to say that one more time?" I snarled, my sword in my hand and against his throat. But the man's cold grey eyes stared unflinchingly into mine. He was taller, but not by much.   
"I've heard the stories Captain Evans. I know that the last Ministry ship you took down, you were so drunk your crew did every bit of the work. Or the time you got in a sword fight and fell down drunk, forcing your first mate to finish the fight. There are the great stories, yes, but there are the drunken ones as well. The legendary Captain Evans is nothing but a barefoot drunk." He spat in my face. I gasped and hit him in the stomach forcing him to his knees. Neville was forced to release his hold on the man, as a ripple of anger flashed around my crew and he glared up at me.   
"You know nothing of my pain. You know nothing of what I have lived through. Nothing." I snarled before punching him hard in the face and whirling away.   
"Take him to the brig. Everyone else walks the plank. You can get to that island and pray some ship rescues you." There was silence. "NOW." I screamed before storming into my room. I heard the movement on the deck, the shouts of my crew muffled by the roaring in my ears, as I sank to my knees leaning against the door. I closed my eyes and the image of my mother's portrait swept unbidden into my mind. I could see the smiles of my uncles and then I could hear the screams as they died followed closely with a deep burning ache of loss coiling around my chest. Sputtering on the pain, I blindly reached for a bottle and downed the rum inside, letting it burn the pain away. 

A few days later in the middle of the night I couldn’t sleep, which usually happened after a drinking binge. My head pounded, with a hangover or the shame of it all I didn’t know. I stood and walked out onto the deck. It was silent, the only sound the wind and the gentle movement of the sea. I could hear Ron and Hermione murmuring softly in the crow’s nest, voices floating down slowly over the faint creaks of the ship. Charlie stood at the wheel, keeping our course. We were following coordinates Zabini had shared, heading toward where the Ministry didn’t want me to go. I sighed and pulled my hair back into a messy loop at the back of my head.   
"Charlie?" I called. He nodded and raised an eyebrow.   
"When was the last time our prisoner had food?"   
"Um I think the day he disrespected you. You said no one was to go near him, Captain." He called. I nodded, scrubbing at my face.  
"I'm going to bring him food." I said. Charlie just shrugged.   
I gathered a whole bundle of food into a cloth sack and then grabbed a clean shirt and breeches from the supplies, and a jug of water, before heading down to the brig. It was dark, grimy moonlight filtered through the portholes. I set the food down and light a match before lighting the two lamps by the stairs.   
I turned back to the row of cells. Malfoy was sleeping in his cell, curled in the back corner on a tattered blanket. I grimaced at the wave of pity and guilt I felt seeing him. As if he sensed that, the thin pale man shivered.   
"Malfoy." I said curtly. He jumped and scrambled up. His hair was dirty and hung in greasy strands in his face. He watched me with a weary look in his slate eyes, but his face betrayed his exhaustion. I held up the sack of food and the clean clothes. I unlocked his door and set them down in his cell along with the water, before closing it back up. He looked at me oddly.   
"You beat me up, and then bring me food and fresh clothes? And I told you. I don't drink rum." He snapped.   
"It isn’t rum. It's water."   
"Ah, no rum left after your four day drinking binge. I heard the crew talking." He taunted. I sighed.   
"I have no energy to take your bait and you have even less energy to fight me." I said softly. "I know you're hungry. Just eat." I said wearily before sitting down opposite him again. He watched me like a nervous animal before he sat and opened the bag. He pulled out the apples, cheese, bread, and salted meat, his eyes growing wide. I chuckled and shifted against the bars.   
"Why?" He asked suddenly, dropping the apple he held into the bag.   
"Because sometimes the rum runs dry and I can’t sleep. And I was lying in bed and wondered when you had last eaten. I don’t think myself a cruel man."   
"Oh. I am hungry." He sighed staring at the food.   
"Eat. I didn’t do anything to it."   
He fell on the food after a brief moment of eyeing me, devouring it in great gulps. I would have laughed if this wasn’t my fault. When he had finished the food and water he sat back and sighed.   
"You need a bath." I remarked. He sneered at me.   
"Yeah, I fucking do! I've been locked in this blasted cell for nearly a week!" He cried. I just watched him. He stood, and started pacing.   
"Just let me off! Maroon me on some island!" He cried angrily. I continued to sit and watch him.   
"Please. Let me go."   
"No. You see, you are my leverage. I may not consider myself a cruel man, but I do consider myself a smart man. We are going after whatever treasure your father was hunting and I have a feeling you will be a valuable asset to m and I have a feeling you will be a valuable asset to my crew." I said heaving myself to my feet. He paled at the mention of the treasure.   
"Ah, that got your attention. Goodnight... Draco." I practically purred before leaving him, staring at me in shock.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry freaks out a bit in this chapter, looses his temper as we all know he is known to do. Also mention of past Wolfstar. Enjoy! Also, warning I have no idea of anything medical related so every thing the is mentioned at the end of the chapter is made up and used entirely for my creativeness.

I didn't sleep that night even after seeing Malfoy. I stood on the deck watching the sea and the stars until the first blush of light pinked the horizon and turned the ocean a pale rose gold. I gave in to the thoughts of slate grey eyes and blonde hair. I thought about that sharp tongue of his and the way his eyes burned when I'd made him angry. And then I let my mind, in those early hours dream about his creamy skin under his clothes. Wondering what he would look like thrown back against my bed, if we would sneak kisses on deck, if I would come up behind him and hold his slender body in my arms while watching the sunset, if maybe he would step onto the deck in the early hours of morning, wrapped in a blanket or my coat and call me back to bed. I let my longing, lonely heart dream of having that attractive blonde in my arms. I had always had a taste for blonde men, ever since I first started realizing maybe women weren’t all I liked.   
"Captain, I am surprised to see you here, and sober." A soft voice interrupted my musings. I glanced over my shoulder to see Ginny Weasley standing behind me. Her fiery hair was braided down her back and she was wearing a pair of breeches and loose shirt like the rest of the crew. I smiled slightly and turned back to the sea, which was blooming with color from the rising sun. She came up next to me and leaned against the railing.   
"Are you alright Harry?" She asked softly after a moment.   
"My mother's portrait went down with the Red Haired Lady. I had a choice to save you all or save her portrait. It was my most important possession, and it’s at the bottom of the ocean." I said glancing briefly at her. She nodded.   
"I am sure that we can get another one made. There are pictures in your uncles' old home." She said. I scowled. Ginny sighed and bumped my shoulder.   
"We are stopping in Tortuga tonight, go to the house and grab some things. It will make you feel better." She murmured, eyes on the sea.   
"Gin, can you bring food to our prisoner once a day? You can pick which meal you serve him. But if you learn anything from him, even the most meaningless information, you come straight to me." She watched me with wide eyes. "Oh, wait here a moment. I have something for you to give him." I ran into my quarters and grabbed a blue hair ribbon and an older hair brush. "Bring these to him." Ginny raised an eyebrow but accepted the items before going below deck.   
The rest of the day I helped the crew with preparations for the stop in Tortuga that night. Ron and Hermione kept shooting me odd glances all day, which I ignored. The crew is always on edge after a drinking binge.   
When we reached the bay that evening, the crew were anxious to get to the pubs and the shops that didn’t care if you spent pirate money as long as it was good money.   
Ginny came up to me while her brothers were bickering over where to go first. Hermione, Cho, and she had spent the afternoon curling their hair and styling it on top of their heads and they all wore long flowy dresses.   
"Harry, thought I'd pass along the message before I get all drunk. The prisoner said he had no use for a brush and hair ribbons living in a cell and that I should tell my drunken captain exactly where he could shove his gifts." She laughed then, before pecking my cheek and flouncing off to join the crew piling onto the deck below. I sighed, before joining them. The twins and Charlie, along with Seamus and Dean headed for the pubs. Ginny and Cho hurried toward a dress shop arm in arm. Neville muttered something about plants and the attractive blonde who tended a garden here. Hermione and Ron went to the house they owned in a quiet corner of the town to have some peace. I headed down the dark streets to the house where my uncles had raised me. I sighed deeply and put the key I wore around my neck in the lock. I stepped into the dusty entry way and closed the door. I lit the candle standing on the low table near the door and moved into the house. The kitchen and sitting rooms didn’t interest me, nothing there but memories. I walked up to the floor with all the bedrooms and paused outside a room I hadn’t entered in years. I ran my hand over the wood carving that my uncle had labored over for hours when I was a kid to make for my other uncle. I sighed. I knew they had pictures in there of my parents. But I couldn’t bear to go into a room that held so many memories. I moved down the hall to my old room and opened it. Dust covered everything. I went to the bedside table where there were two portraits standing in dusty frames. One was of a red haired woman holding a baby wrapped in a christening gown. The other was of my uncles. One had long dark hair and snapping eyes, the other was neater in appearance with lighter hair. But even in the faded paint you could see how much they loved each other. The way they held hands, the way one stood behind the other protectively, I brushed dust off the frames and tucked them into my coat pocket. I looked around the room. The bed had been made by the servants the day I had been forced to leave, and the teddy bear was still propped on the pillow. My childhood books that Uncle Remus had given me lined the shelves and small clothes still lay in the dresser. I ran my fingers over the spines of the books. I chose three of them and put them in my pockets as well. Then my eyes landed on the cot in the corner of the room. Uncle Sirius had used it when I had come to them as a panicked four year old. I picked it up and left the house in a hurry, locking it behind me. I picked up two cases full of rum from a pub and headed back to the ship. I set the rum down in my quarters, and debated what to do with the cot. I had grabbed it for Malfoy but I didn’t want to put it in the brig. I set the books down on the dresser in the room, and then took the pictures out of my pocket. I sat on my bed and studied the one with my mother.   
She was wearing a green dress that had long draping sleeves. She is holding me in a long white christening gown, my black hair and green eyes are evident beneath the white bonnet I’m wearing. My mother’s dark red curls are spilling around her face and shoulders, a gold necklace that was a gift from my father resting against her chest. The years in that dark room had mostly preserved the colors mostly, they were just a bit faded. I closed my eyes, remembering a moment from my child hood with her.   
"Look, Harry. Your daddy had this painting done the day we picked your name. He gave me that dress and that necklace and he gave me you, my perfect little boy." She had said snuggling me closer. I remember how she had smelled of flowers, how soft her hair was, and how she would sing to me pirate songs as I drifted to sleep. I let the tears tug at me with the pain of missing her. I stared at the painting, remembering her snapping green eyes and the way she smiled easily and often. The problem with missing someone you only knew when you were very little is that you only have good memories. I remembered only one thing from her death, but I have no bad memories of her as my mother. With my uncles, I remember the night they died and I remember how good life was with them, before everything went to shit. Their portrait is a simple sketch, no colors, a sketch they had done when they first fell in love and one I had stolen from their bedroom as a child. I set the two portraits down on the table at the foot of my bed.   
"This way I can take you with me if we sink again." I murmured before grabbing the books and heading down to the brig. I stopped when I heard voices.   
"Listen, Draco. I know he can be a bit of a...”   
"Drunken bastard?" Malfoy supplied.   
"Listen, when he was young he lost everyone he had ever known and loved. He has horrible things in his past that pain him daily." Malfoy huffed at Ginny's words. "Ron and Hermione are the only ones beside himself who know the pain he went through. I am not saying that the rum is a good way to cope but it his choice. And hey he brought you a hair brush, he isn’t all bad."   
"It’s an excellent sob story, truly. Brava, Ginny. And tell me, how long have you been in love with him?" Malfoy taunted. I could almost hear Ginny bristle.   
"I am not in love with him!" She hissed. Malfoy merely laughed.   
"You are a terrible liar. Please, checking on me is a stupid excuse to be back on the ship and you know it. You’re hoping our tortured drunken captain will pace the deck, with his wild hair and burning eyes. And then maybe his drunken arse will take you to bed. Your red face is betraying you, Ginny." Malfoy teased. "My goodness Ginny, you’ve got it bad."   
"I am not in love with him!" She cried, stamping her foot. "And even if I was, it wouldn’t matter. He’s bent, I am lacking some key parts to keep him interested." She said sadly. I growled low in my throat and stomped down the stairs.   
"Harry! How um how much have you heard?" She gasped, stepping backward.   
"Captain Evans to you, don't you think you have shared enough of my secrets for one evening?" I asked, voice low and dangerous, stalking closer to her. "So I suggest you get off this boat and join the rest of the crew before you join him." I growled, jerking my head at Malfoy who was leaning against his bars watching us with a smirk. Ginny's eyes went wide and she gaped at me. "NOW WEASLEY!" I yelled. She jumped and raced up the stairs. That was when Malfoy tipped his head back and laughed. My temper snapped like a sail in the wind. I lunged at the bars and grabbed his long pale throat.   
"Think my pain is so funny, Malfoy?" I spat. His hands reached up and clutched my arm. I growled and threw him back. Because bars separated us he stumbled back and hit the wall behind him, the force of my throw disrupted. He gaped at me for a moment, rubbing his throat his eyes wide. Both of us stood there panting, eyes boring into each other. I pushed a hand into my hair.   
"I brought these for you. A Thousand and one nights and Gulliver’s Travels. Remus read them to me as a kid." I murmured before setting the books down.   
He gaped at me. And then chuckled darkly.  
"First you choke me and then you give me books? And far as I can see you haven’t had a drop of rum this evening but you seem a bit off in the head." He wheezed, still rubbing his throat.   
"I know what it is like to lose a parent." I murmured. He laughed, a dry sound without humor.   
"Ah yes. You're little girlfriend informed me of your troubled past." I clenched my fists and looked away.   
"I told you before, you know nothing of my pain. I read a letter your father left on the table in his quarters. I know you like to read. I know its boring stuck down here."   
"So that's how you learnt my first name. So you are a snooping, pitying, drunk. Good to know. My Captain, I have learned a lot about you today." He sneered at me. I sighed.   
"I am a pirate. Drinking goes with the job." I said. "Accept the books or don’t. But I would ask that you not destroy them. Relics from ones tragic backstory are always sacred." I said before climbing the stairs and leaving him. 

We stayed in Tortuga for two days, which I spent pouring over the map Lucius had left in my chambers.   
"Mate, it can’t be good to be cooped up in here all day. Go out and drink with the twins!" Ron said, leaning against the doorway.   
"Come take a look at this." I called, crooking a finger at him. He came over and leaned close to the map reading some of the markings and notes Lucius had made.   
"It looks like a map to me." Ron shrugged, straightening.   
"It is, but there is no mention of what is at the end of it. None. Lucius just took notes on what dangers lie in getting to the treasure. And his son and those scouts in Pansy's pub were worried I'd find whatever it is they are looking for." I said, scratching at my chin.   
"That Zabini fellow was no help?" Ron guessed. I shook my head.   
"He said that the Captain told no one but the first mate about what the treasure was. In case of pirates." I chuckled darkly.   
"That’s why you gave him the books." Ron said with a chuckle.   
"How do you know about the books?"   
"Gin. She said you overheard her talking with him and got angry." Ron looked at me quizzically. "Mate, you know she loves you. And it’s none of my business, I know you like blokes and birds, but you don’t fancy this Malfoy bloke do you?"   
I chuckled.   
"It is none of your business. But no, I don’t. He’s just the key to helping us find the treasure." Ron breathed a sigh of relief.   
"Good. I have no problem with you being bent but that pointy git is trouble. I gotta go check on 'Mione." He said clapping me on the back before striding out of my quarters. I sighed and went back to the map.

That night I was the only one aboard the Serpent's Shadow. I spent most of the night continuing to studying the map, making notes on a piece of parchment.   
I stood and stretched at around 1 in the morning and wandered out onto the deck. The ships bobbed gently with the sea against the dock below and the lookouts from nearby ships patrolled the decks. I sighed, feeling the breeze tousle the loose strands of hair around my face. The breeze reminded me of the first time I had sailed to Tortuga. My mother had been nervous and clutched my arm almost the entire time. But I had loved it, every second of it. I blew out a breath and ventured down below deck. I grabbed a pair of irons and a plate of food and walked down to see the prisoner. He was sitting on the floor, legs stretched in front of him, crossed at the ankles. He was chewing on an apple core and was reading one of the books. I chuckled and held up the food when he jumped and looked at me.   
"I didn’t know anyone was still aboard. I meant to go to bed but then couldn’t put the book down." He said pushing himself to his feet.   
"I need you to help me with something." I said, raising the shackles. He looked nervous, but lifted his chin defiantly.   
"Alright. But why the shackles?" He asked nervously.   
"A precaution. To remind me that you are a prisoner in case you get mouthy." He snorted but held out his arms. His sleeves had been pushed up to his elbows, and when I stepped into the cell to secure the irons I noticed the brand. It was a large, angry mark on his left forearm. It was in the shape of a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. Something deep in my memory stirred at the sight of it, like something that had been sleeping inside me trying to awaken. I shook it off and beckoned for him to follow me. We climbed onto the open deck, and Malfoy stopped. He tipped his head back slowly, the long pale line of his throat exposed as he closed his eyes, drinking in the moonlight. I froze. His hair turned silver in the pale light and his skin was unearthly, the breeze lifting the long dirty strands of his hair slightly around his face. He breathed deep for a moment and then looked at me.   
"Sorry, it’s been nearly a week since I was out in the air. What do you need help with?" He asked. I shook myself and beckoned to him slowly. He followed me into my quarters nervously.   
"Your fathers map. There is no mention of what is at the end of the map." I asked. Malfoy tensed.   
"You should give it up. You shouldn’t follow this." He snapped. I gaped at him.   
"So you know what is at the end of this? You know what your father was after?"   
"No. I didn’t say that, Evans." He snapped.   
"Yes you do! You know." I cried. He took a step back at my raised voice.   
"Don’t go after this. Don’t. Don’t follow the map. Don’t endanger all of us. Forget it." He pleaded, backing into the wall, the chains clinking softly. I continued to gape at him.   
"What are you so afraid of?" I snapped at him. "I am a bloody pirate! I am one of the most notorious pirates on the seas! Tell me what the damn treasure is!" I advanced on him until we were inches apart.   
"Yeah?" He snapped. "Such a mighty pirate? You’re nothing but a drunk! And if you sail in search of this, we will all die!" He spat. I growled and lunged at him, using my forearm to push him back into the wall. He grinned darkly. "You are nothing but talk, Evans. You call yourself Captain, but you are nothing but a bully and a drunk." He hissed, words dripping with sarcasm and disdain. "You are so blinded by this so called pain you and your brainwashed crew members keep talking about that you are going to kill everyone on this ship. You just want to drink and steal gold for more drink and whores. You are pathetic." He snarled, even as my arm pressed into him. I lost it then. Rage swirled through my brain in a red fog. It flooded my veins like ice or fire, making my heart pound. I slammed him back against the wall so hard I heard his teeth rattle. I threw him to the ground and kicked him, hard. I turned and started smashing things in the room, overturning the tables and upending the bed while he wheezed on the floor the images of my mother and uncles flashing through my mind on an endless loop.   
I don’t know what finally filtered through my haze that made me stop. It could have been the fact that my hands and shirt were covered in blood. It could have been the fact that the room was trashed, or that I had several cuts and that I was panting. I turned and found him slumped against the wall, a welt forming on his head and blood trickling down the side of his face. I slumped next to his still form and sobbed. When my tears were spent, and every breath grated on my throat, I stood and helplessly surveyed the damage to my room. I pulled the bloody shirt off of me and tore it into strips before soaking it in fresh water from the basin on the far side of the room that I somehow had missed. My hand was bleeding and there was broken shards of glass from some shattered teacups embedded in my hands. I knelt beside him and started wiping the blood from his face.   
"Harry? Harry are you awake?" Hermione's voice called from my door.   
"Are you alone?" I croaked.   
"Merlin Harry, what happened? Yes, I’m alone. Let me in." She gasped.   
"It’s open." She burst in and gasped when she saw Malfoy’s and I’s bloody bodies and the mess of my quarters.   
"Harry! What happened?" She cried, rushing to us, her blue dress pooling around her.   
"I um, lost my temper. Can you help?" She gaped at me. And then hit me hard on the shoulder with the thick book she was holding.   
"Harry James Potter, you insufferable pirate!" She hissed.   
"I'm sorry! You have to help! I just, he insulted me and I just pictured Sirius and Remus and I snapped." I sighed. She scowled and used skilled fingers to feel along his torso, eyes scanning the room. She had joined us as a runaway, her parents expected her to be a nurse but Hermione wanted to read and study. Something that pirates let women do.   
"Well, Captain. You broke his ribs. I’m also concerned he might have a concussion I think when you upended the bed you hit him." I sighed and raked a hand through my hair.   
"What do you need me to do?" I asked. She thought a moment.   
"Right the bed and the table, pick up all the papers and things that fell. Then bring me the water bowl so I can stitch you both up." I sprang up and did as she asked. “Hold him up. I’m going to bind up his chest as tight as I can. Actually, you are stronger. I am going to hold him up and you wrap the sheet around him as tight as possible, but still letting him breathe." My shaky hands followed her instructions, and after a few tries I got it good enough for Hermione. "He's needs rest Harry. And not back in that damp cell. So I suggest if you don’t want the rest of the crew to know about this bout of rage, that you set him up in here. I’ll come back and check on him tomorrow.” We hoisted him into my bed and covered him, the neat row of stitches Hermione has sewed into his forehead standing out sharply against his pale skin. She pushed me into a chair and carefully pulled the shattered tea set shards out of my hand, glaring at me with every sharp intake of breathe I gave. When she was done, she wrapped my hand, shot me a last dirty look and strode out. I sighed. I propped up the pillows around him and covered him with another blanket. I set up the cot in the corner and went to sleep a thin blanket thrown over me, my dreams plagued with images of my mother, screaming for me to run


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay in posting this. I am so terrible at updating, so sorry! Brief mention of suicidal thoughts in this.

I woke with the sun, as did most of the crew. We set sail in the early hours, leaving behind Tortuga with two months’ worth of supplies. Hermione discreetly checked on Malfoy and informed me that he was unchanged as we made our way out of the bay. Ron and I held the map between us and charted our course.   
"You ever find out what is at the end of this?" He asked, peering at the red ex at the end.   
"I have no idea. Malfoy wouldn’t talk. He seemed concerned though." Ron’s ginger eyebrows rose.   
"Mate, we are pirates. What have we to be afraid of?" I said, grinning. Ron laughed and shook his head, before going to find one of his brothers to ensure our swords were ready, just in case. I spent all morning out with the crew, barking orders and guiding the ship toward out destination. I was clear headed, the sea breeze like a balm to my soul, the sun bouncing off the calm blue surface of the water chasing the fog from my mind.   
At noon Ron came and told me to get some sleep because I looked like death, according to him, and my hands were bleeding through my bandages. (I told the crew that I fell into all the china dishes Lucius had in his quarters and crushed them with my hands, which was mostly true and we all laughed about what a pompous arse he was). I stepped into the cabin to find that Hermione had brought Malfoys books up, and had set them on the table by my mother's portrait. Malfoy himself looked terrible in the daylight, the long gash on his face with its neat row of stitches standing out sharply against his pale, otherwise smooth skin. He was still sleeping, breathing in and out evenly. I groaned and peeled the bandages off my hands, soaking them in water. There was salt water Hermione had diluted a bit and filled a bowl with to clean my hands, she had also set some clean bandages next to the water bowl.   
"I do believe, Evans that I am the one who should be groaning." His soft voice made me jump and I looked over, to find him feeling his face gingerly. "You gave me quite the cut here Evans, or is it Potter? That nurse of yours called you both." He sneered.   
"She’s not my nurse, she's a sailor like the rest of my crew." I answered. He chuckled darkly.   
"Didn’t answer the question."   
"That was deliberate."   
"Right. Getting beaten to a pulp and witnessing your tirade doesn’t give me the privilege of an answer to a simple question. Got it." I groaned into my hand.   
"You were not beaten to a pulp, don’t be so dramatic. Potter is the last name I was given at birth. My father was killed when I was very young and so it was just me and my mum. She had to flee England when I was young because of my father’s killer. We settled in Port Royal but then things caught up to her. We ran to Tortuga when I was four and I lived with my uncles after she died. They died when I was 11 and to protect me they insisted I take the last name Evans. Happy?" I snapped. He was silent.   
"You speak of your mother with such reverence. Is she the reason your last ship was called the Red Haired Lady?" He asked after a long pause.   
"You got your one question. Now I need sleep." I snapped, slumping onto the cot with my bandages. I poorly wrapped my stinging hands, wincing slightly.   
I rolled over and fell into an uneasy sleep. I dreamt of my mother and of the way Remus had screamed for me to run. The next thing I knew I was being shaken awake by Malfoy himself. He was scowling down at me, and I shrieked, before punching him in the stomach.  
"Ouch! Gods Evans, what the hell? You were whimpering and crying out for Remus. You were getting loud enough that I feared the crew would come in." He scowled and limped back to bed. I sighed and slumped back onto the pillow. I ran a hand through my sweaty hair, and groaned.   
"I'm sorry to punch you. Your face was uh surprising." I murmured. He laughed without humor.   
"Well that is surprising since I have been keeping up such a good skin care routine, what with living in the bowels of the ship and then being beaten with in an inch of my life. Are you sure I'm not glowing?" He responded. I chuckled and stood, rolling my eyes at his drama. I poured myself a glass of water and downed it before filling him one and offering it. He scowled at me and then winced when the skin pulled uncomfortably around his cut. I sighed and perched on the edge of the bed and handed him the glass. I raised a damp cloth and dabbed at the cut, which had started to ooze a bit between the stitches. He jumped at the touch and jerked back.   
"Oh relax will you. Hermione said that a cold cloth might feel nice on the swollen skin, and you are bleeding a bit." I said before tossing the cloth at him and stalking off. I could feel his gaze on me as I moved to the desk and sat down to study the map. He watched me for a moment, before placing the rag over his scrape.  
"My mum was killed too." He said softly. My head snapped up and I watched him. He was gazing at the portrait of my mother. "My dad joined the fleet when he found that my mother was pregnant. His family expected him to marry her but no one expected him to stick around. So they married and then he left. He was rarely home for my upbringing. It was all my mum. And then when I was 16, she got sick and died in the middle of the night. My father showed up the next day and I had no choice but to join him." He whispered, his voice barely betraying his pain. I lowered the reading glasses I had been about to put on. "And now I am a pirate’s punching bag." He growled, glaring at me. I sighed and looked down, feeling a wave of pity and anger race through me. Then I groaned and threw a candle stick sitting on the desk at the wall. Malfoy jumped but I didn’t look at him as I stormed out onto the deck. Evening was falling, turning the sea orange and crimson. I removed my bandana and the necklace I always wore tucked beneath my shirt, forcing them into the hands of an unsuspecting Cho.   
"Captain Evans what are you doing?" She asked, her dark hair shining in the light.   
"I need a swim." I snapped. I grabbed a rope and tied it tightly around my waist. "Do not lose those." I said glaring at her before I dove off the side of the ship. The wind rushed through my hair and clothes. And then I sliced into the water, its icy waves chilling my skin and making me gasp for breath when my head broke the surface. I spluttered and let the current carry me alongside the ship. The shock of the cold and the adrenaline from the fall coursed through me, stealing my breath and threatening panic. I could hear yelling on deck and could see many red headed sailors racing around. I closed my eyes, forced myself to breathe, control my reaction, and let the cold water clear my thoughts.   
"Now Harry, remember what I taught you?"   
"Yes mum. Always keep my head up."   
"That's right my darling. And remember that I always love you."   
"I wuv you too mama."   
"Good, never forget that my brave little boy." I remembered so clearly the way her green eyes had shone that night. How her red hair was so soft when she squeezed me tight. How she had kissed me gently and sang me to sleep one last time. And as I floated there in the cold, salty water, I remembered my uncle Sirius waking me the next morning. I remembered wondering why he was crying and I remembered Uncle Remus sobbing into Sirius and saying she’s gone over and over. Looking back I must have understood what had happened because I remembered sobbing along with them.   
Then I remembered after the ship wreck, how I had swam through the water and hauled my crew onto the life boat. How I had dived down to grab Fred who was struggling with his sister’s weight. How I dove after Lavender and Ernie but couldn't reach them. Ron had to jump in after me and haul me shivering and coughing onto the boat because I was risking death myself. I floated there in that cold water and wished, not for the first time, that I could be swallowed by the sea. That I could open my eyes and hear my mother say how much she loves me, or meet my father, or hug my uncles again. I felt the shivering start, my body fighting against what my mind wanted, and wondered what would happen if I untied the rope and just floated away. My ears were under the surf, I couldn't hear the shouts from the deck, just that eerie silence of underwater. I let the waves rock me slowly, peacefully. I wanted to be gone.   
I felt a gentle tugging on the rope and looked up to see Ron and Hermione frantically hauling me in. I rolled my eyes and started heaving myself out of the water, my limbs numb and heavy, making climbing the rope a slow and exhausting process. When I was on deck I was met with a very disgruntled crew.   
"Harry, I thought you promised not to do this again!" Hermione screeched.   
"Oh hush. I needed to think." I snapped. I let them wrap me in blankets but then I brushed past everyone when they started to circle around me with worried and angry faces.  
"Keep our heading!" I barked and stormed into my cabin. Once there, I ignored Malfoy completely, who was looking agitated, and changed into dry clothes. I put the necklace back on, Cho must have dumped it on the table shortly after I jumped, grabbed a bottle of rum and fell into bed. I ignored Malfoy's barbed comments about my being a drunken, suicidal captain and let the rum flood my belly with warmth.  
When I drink and then sleep, I have three types of dreams. When I am barely drunk, that kind of dazed buzz that makes me sleepy, I dream of my mother. When I am stumbling drunk but can still attempt to speak, I dream of finding treasure with my dad. But when I am borderline blackout drunk, like I was that night, I dream about sex. Usually just some faceless stranger moving under the sheets. This time though was different. I was lying in bed sobbing about my mum. A soft voice made shushing noises and pried the rum from my hands. I protested a bit but allowed them to take it. Then strong arms were around me and I was being pressed against a warm, firm chest.   
"Easy, love. I’ve got you. Shhh its ok." The person holding me soothed. I shook my head and pressed closer.   
"Come now, Harry, it’s alright." Strong hands rubbed over my back, and a kiss was pressed to my hair. I looked up into silver eyes and a smile.   
"Draco?" I asked softly. He smiled and brushed a hand through my hair.   
"Yes, love?" I tried to move away but he held me tight.   
"Why are you holding me?" I whispered, snuggling closer, wanting more of his warmth my surprised tone contradicting my actions.   
"Because I love you." He whispered before moving his face down to brush his lips against mine. I froze.   
"Harry, I love you." He murmured again, and then kissed me again. I pushed my hand into his hair and let him roll on top of me. He was warm and gentle, his hands smoothing my hair. I pressed up into him, seeking more. His weight felt warm and comforting. I clung to him, attempted to roll us over and suddenly crashed to the floor. I groaned, jerking awake.   
"About damn time." Malfoy snapped. I grunted again and sat up. It was a short drop from the bed to the floor, but I had landed on my face and I had an aching hard on. I was also tangled in the sheet.   
"You were moaning in your sleep. Great Captain Evans having bad dreams?" I glared at him and heaved myself onto the bed again. I pulled a pillow on to my lap and rubbed at my face. "Ah, great Captain Evans dreaming of shagging some pretty little thing?" He sneered. I flipped him off and tried to force down the pain in my head that made me sick.   
"How long was I out?" I whispered. He chuckled dryly.   
"Two days. You woke slightly, to drink more." He snorted. I groaned again and slumped onto the bed. I closed my eyes and tried not to vomit. My body however made it clear that wasn’t an option. I leapt from the bed and raced out of the room onto the deck and flung myself against the railing as my stomach purged its contents. I moaned softly and slid down to rest my forehead on the smooth wood after. Someone knelt next to me and handed me a cup of water. I drank that one, and the refilled cup I was given.   
"Better?" Hermione asked. I nodded slowly.   
I breathed the salty air deep and tried to calm my rolling stomach. I hauled myself up and let my stomach heave again. Hermione held my hair and rubbed my back. She left me sitting in the sun for a bit, while she grabbed some water and fresh clothes. When she returned, she sat next to me and dragged a brush through my hair.   
"More bad memories?" She asked, working the tangles out as gently as she could.   
"Yeah." I said softly.   
"I’m sorry Harry. I understand." Hermione meant it too. Her father had been a doctor in London, her mother a nurse. They pushed her into nursing but loved her dearly. There had been a terrible accident that had left Hermione an orphan. Ron had found her in Pansy's brothel serving drinks, and after accidently paying for her, fallen madly in love with the girl who could read, and had insisted she join us. She had agreed, but insisted she bring Cho with her. Hermione talked about the accident with Ron and me very rarely, mostly she just took care of all of us. But I knew she had nightmares that woke Ron up, and that he always soothed her back to sleep.   
"Harry you really need a trim." She sighed, the brush tangling in my hair. "And a wash."   
"I don’t care what you do, but can I lie down in bed while you do it?" I whispered. Hermione helped me up with a chuckle and we walked to my room, me leaning heavily on her due to the pounding in my head. Malfoy was propped in bed reading, but he glanced up with a raised eyebrow when we entered. Hermione dumped me on my bed and hurried off to grab a bucket and some soap. When she came back she propped me up in bed and gently worked the suds through my hair.   
"Do you always dote on him this way?" Malfoy inquired.   
"Only because he doesn’t have anyone else." She replied. I closed my eyes and slumped back into the pillows, hoping I could sleep.   
"He has a whole crew."   
"Aye, he does. But he has very few people who he trusts and who can support him. Our captain has had a hard life." She murmured, her fingers in my hair soothing my tired mind.   
"You all excuse his actions and his drinking by a hard life. Haven’t we all suffered? What makes him special?" Malfoy sneered. Hermione sighed.   
"When Harry's Uncles died, he was left all alone. A woman found him wandering the streets and took him in. However she was a cruel woman and beat him often. After two years living with her, she sold him as a slave to a naval officer who was just as cruel as that toad." Hermione’s voice grew bitter. "He hasn’t told anyone how he got from there to here." She murmured, scissors gently trimming my wild hair.  
"Did he give you permission to share this with me while he sleeps?" Malfoy whispered.   
"I’m not asleep, Malfoy. She tells my tragic backstory much better than I do." I said, cracking my eyes open to see the pale face stretched in shock. I chuckled.   
"So now you know why I am the way I am." Hermione tsked and finished brushing my hair.   
"You’re done, now get some rest. Both of you." She snapped, leaving us with a look that suggested we do as she say. Malfoy turned and looked at me.   
"I am not going to answer questions." I retorted, settling on to the bed. The sun was setting over the ocean, bathing the room in orange light. I turned to glare at Malfoy, but was instantly distracted. The orange light on Malfoy's blonde hair made it shine like fire. It was mesmerizing and I couldn’t look away. He looked like an angel of fire, some unearthly being sent to torment me. Then, the sun sank into the sea and the moment ended, leaving me still gaping at the blonde.   
"What are you staring at, Evans?" He snapped, leaning down into the pillows on his bed and glaring at me.   
"Potter." I whispered. He raised an eyebrow. "You can call me Potter if you want, plenty of the crew does." I breathed. He looked at me quizzically for a moment, his silver eyes conveying nothing but confusion.   
"You are the oddest man I have ever had the displeasure of meeting." He snapped before retrieving his book.   
I tried to sleep, rolling so my back faced him, listening to the steady turn of his pages. But I couldn’t sleep. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t seem to quiet my mind enough to sink into dreams. Ever since I had seen the mark on his arm something deep in the recesses of my memory was trying to resurface, but all it kept bringing up where tragic memories. I flopped onto my back and sighed.   
"Good lord Potter, Evans whatever the hell your name is! Stop all that tossing and turning!" Malfoy snapped. I frowned at him and stood. I shrugged into a coat, the chill air making me shiver. I sat at my desk and lit a candle, before leaning over a journal Lucius had left. I pulled on a pair of glasses that I kept nearby when I had to read anything. I was aware that Malfoy was watching me, his book forgotten on the table by my mother’s portrait.   
"Do you know what we are sailing toward?" He asked. I glanced up at him.   
"I know very little. I know that there is treasure, and danger. And that your father didn’t want me to find it." I answered. Malfoy nodded and turned away, staring out the window next to the bed. He was absently rubbing his left arm.   
"I suppose there will be no convincing you to turn back?" He asked softly.   
"Pirates don’t turn back. All of us are skilled swordsmen." I snapped, waving a hand toward the door. He nodded.   
"We are four weeks journey away." He breathed. "The danger we are facing is nothing you have ever seen. There is a legend about this place. You need to know what we are headed toward." I gaped at him.   
"Legend has it that there once was a young man who sailed the globe. He had seen every part of the world and met every kind of people. He was richer than any king and had almost anything he wanted, save for one thing. He was searching for something to keep him alive forever and someone to love forever. He had fallen in love with a handsome young man, but the man's family insisted he marry a woman. The young man begged the sailor to find the needed items to grant them both immortality. He swore that then they could be together forever, and that he would wait for his sailors return, claiming that the sea was no place for a man like him. The sailor left on his quest to gather the necessary items, promising to return soon. He faced countless dangers and made numerous bargains with the guardians of the items. He sailed back to his love, triumphant, when he finally procured the secret to immortality. However, he had been gone for years and found his love married to a woman with three children, happily in love. In a fit of rage, he killed his lover and his wife, leaving their three children orphans. He cursed them, saying that they would be doomed to wander the earth lonely forever. But if they could journey to the edge of the world, they could find a magic potion, brewed by the captain to remind him of his lover, for he had learned magic on his travels. This potion smells of the things each person is most attracted to. The captain told the children in the curse that if they could find him and the potion, they would be able to find the one person meant for them, and be able to find happiness. Only two of the children managed to find the captain and the potion. According to the legend, the third child wanders the earth lost and lonely, desperately trying to find the potion." Malfoy said eyeing me.   
"Why did your father want to find this potion?" I asked, realization at what we were heading toward dawning on me.   
"He didn’t want the potion. He wants the items that make you immortal." Malfoy said, grey eyes snapping to mine, cold with anger. "Turn back, Potter. Forget this. You are endangering all of us!" He cried, as though in a last attempt to make me see reason.   
"We already have set a course and I am now intrigued, what man can say no to the chance to become immortal? Don’t fret, Malfoy. I have a whole crew." I taunted. He frowned and looked out the window. I scrawled some notes in the back of one of Lucious' journals before I stood and strode out of the room, taking the map with me. I stood on the deck in the star light, letting the wind ruffle my coat, my newly trimmed hair dancing in the breeze. I climbed up to the upper deck, where Zabini was keeping our heading. I watched the stars, making notes on Lucius' map and adjusting our course slightly.   
"You are in a good mood tonight Captain." Blaise remarked. I grinned.   
"Yes. Malfoy is finally talking." Blaise frowned.   
"Oh, so we are heading toward Riddle then?" He inquired. I raised a brow.   
"We are heading toward the potion and immortality." I clarified. Blaise nodded, and shot me an odd look.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am the worst at updates, I am so sorry. I am the worst. So here is a chapter with some smut, forgive me? This probably only has like two more chapters or so, I will do better at updating because uni is almost done for the semester which means I can write again. Yay! Enjoy!

Word spread rapidly through the crew about what we were sailing toward. Lucius' journals implied riches waiting with the immortal man and my crew was chomping on the bit to see the treasure. We had been sailing for four weeks, with good weather and plenty of food. We saw only one merchant ship that hoisted a white flag the instant it spotted us (we sailed past, figuring it best to leave them be), and no one else, meaning we were safe and unfollowed. However, four weeks stuck on a boat, with little to do and no one to fight was driving every one rather stir crazy. Especially Malfoy.   
"Potter, I have read every dismal, boring scrap of paper on this blasted ship. And my ribs are healed and there are only so many laps around this bloody ship a man can stand." Malfoy exclaimed, flinging an arm across his eyes. I glanced up from the letter I was reading. I rolled my eyes and looked back down at the letter. It was a love letter from my mother to my father, something Malfoy had found tucked in the books and given to me without a word. He heaved himself off the bed and walked over to me. He perched on the edge of the desk and frowned.   
"I need a haircut. And a good bath. I smell foul." He whined. I glared up at him, before turning away again. During our four weeks of sharing a cabin we had been in some sort of friendship, if it could be called that. I had learned that his mother had dreams of him becoming a doctor but he hadn’t thought of any life except staying out of his father’s way when he was forced to join the Ministry's ship. I knew that he loved to read, he could recite poetry, he snored sometimes, he looked perfect in the morning, and that when we talked late at night I didn’t feel the need to drink my pain away. In short, the man’s barbed comments and snide remarks made me feel something I never had before. "You know the least you could do is let me bathe. I am your prisoner. My needs are up to you to meet, you know." He said now.   
"Malfoy, if you want to bathe so badly, you are welcome to go below deck and use the tub down there. We are surrounded by water." I dismissed with a wave of my hand. He huffed.   
"A Malfoy does not bathe in salt water." He sniffed. I groaned and pushed away from the desk.  
"Malfoy, I bathe in salt water, we all bathe in salt water. We have been on the ocean for four weeks, although your sunburn would suggest that your first time in the sun was yesterday. Also, you sailed with your father, did you just never bathe then?" I snapped. His eyes flashed, and he lunged at me. I caught him easily by his wrist and he froze.   
"Careful, Malfoy." I warned, but my body surged with adrenaline. His grey eyes blazed with something I couldn’t place. He was standing close. I could smell the sweat on his skin, mixed with the soft smell of the old shirt he was wearing. His hair was hanging around his face in unwashed clumps, and his thin, pink, lips were slightly parted. I shifted forward and suddenly felt a warm weight pressing against my thigh. I glanced down and gasped, releasing him and stepping away.   
"You’re hard." I breathed. He racked a hand through his hair and didn’t look at me.   
"Fuck." He muttered, eyes darting around as though he was looking for an escape route.   
"The fuck Malfoy!" I cried. "Does being threatened get you off?" He snapped his head up and glared at me.   
"Fuck you Potter! How daft are you?" He shouted. I just gaped at him, and then stormed out of the room before the simmering anger boiled over and I hurt him again. The sun was blinding on the water, it bounced off the surface in a million splendid diamonds and I frowned at the ocean, brow furrowed as my eyes adjusted.   
"My Captain, that is an awful face you are making." Ginny teased. I scowled and brushed past her and shooed Charlie from the helm.   
The rest of the day I avoided Malfoy, my brain always wandering back to the way he had felt pressed to my leg. Usually as Captain I have the privacy to go have a good wank, however the certain blonde I had been longing to wank too for four weeks was currently in my chambers and I would be getting no peace. I stayed at the helm until late into the night, when everything was nothing but an expanse of dark, dotted with stars above me, the sound of the ship gently slicing through the water the only sound. Well, aside from Neville singing off key and soft in the crow’s nest. Even that seemed wonderful, in the quiet night. George had to shoo me away around 1 in the morning when he took over. I slipped into my chambers slowly. It was dark, no candles were burning. I breathed a sigh of relief, bent to light a candle, and shielding the flame with my hand, crossed the room to my bathing screen. A tub was bolted to the floor behind the screen there, and a bucket attached to a rope could be lowered out the window here so that I could draw my own bath. I hauled the bucket up seven or eight times and filled the tub. I raked some coals into the slot in the tub designed to heat the water from a small brazier nearby that had been banked for the night. I sank into the water and sighed. It wasn’t warm really, but it wasn’t freezing either. I leaned back and closed my eyes.   
"I was wondering when you would come back." A soft voice said. I yelped and whacked my leg into the metal tub. Malfoy walked around the screen and raised an eyebrow.   
"Jeez Malfoy. Don’t you know better than to sneak up on someone in the bath?" I snapped. He shrugged and sank into a chair across the cabin from me. I just stared at him. We sat there for several moments, I was trying to make sure from the waist down I was shielded from view, he was rubbing his left arm in slow circles.   
"I want to apologize about this morning." He whispered. "I um, I am unsure what happened but I want to assure you that it will never happen again." I stared at him for a few minutes. And then I chuckled. He glared at me, his blonde hair falling in his eyes. I dunked my head under the surface of the water briefly, rinsing suds from my hair and beard.   
"Hand me that towel." I asked gesturing to a blue towel hanging on the wall behind him. He pulled it off the hook and draped it over the screen near me before disappearing from sight. I stood and wrapped the towel around my waist. I began to fill the bucket and dump the water back out to the sea.   
"You want to wash your hair?" I called. I could see through the screen his silhouette as he looked up from his book and touched his hair.   
"Oh. Um, yes please." He whispered. I lowered the bucket and then hauled up the rope several times again until the tub was refilled. I added more coals and wood so that the tub would heat faster, and then I laid out some soaps and scented oils from Lucius' collection. I poked my head around the screen and smiled.   
"It’s ready. When you are done just leave the water. I will dump it tomorrow." I said smiling. He stood slowly and moved behind the screen. I stood for a moment before grabbing some clean breeches and a loose shirt, I pulled the shirt on and left the pants near my cot. I sat on the bed, cross legged and wrote in a journal, sketching out a view of the sunset from the prow. Malfoy walked out from behind the screen twenty minutes later, wearing just the towel low around his hips. I yelped and dropped the journal.   
“Potter you did know I was still, here right?” he snapped. I swallowed and tried to tear my eyes away from his chest, which gleamed slightly in the candle light. Without thinking I whistled lowly. His eyes widened. I grinned and stood up, walking slowly over to him. “What are you doing?” He breathed. I smiled and reached out to ghost my fingers over his arm. His beautiful grey eyes widened and his lips parted. I reached down and laced my fingers through his. He froze and then punched me in the stomach and backed away. “What the Fuck Potter?” He spat. I glared at him, wheezing and clutching the desk for support “What the hell, you can’t just do that!” He started pacing. I straightened up.   
“Good Gods Malfoy, what’s the matter with you? A simple no would have worked. Why the hell did you punch me?” I snapped.   
“Because I’m attracted to you! Who wouldn’t be? No wonder the Weaselette is so in love with you. With your hair and eyes. And your stupid fucking personality. You are just trying to manipulate me with this and I won’t stand for it! I deserve more!" He was panting, glaring daggers at me. I took a moment, before stepping closer, a wolfish grin sliding onto my face. I glanced down, and saw that he was holding the towel up, as it was straining forward.   
"What about my stupid fucking personality?" I breathed. His silvery eyes widened as he looked down at me. He was only a few inches taller than me, but when I stepped closer, I had to lean my head back to see into his eyes. He licked his lips, his eyes flickering from my eyes to my lips.   
"I’m your prisoner." He breathed. I reached up and gently tucked a piece of hair behind his ears. Words seemed to rocket around my brain, a million different responses to his question flashed behind my eyes. Instead, always the man of action, I reached up and pressed my lips to his. For a moment, neither of us moved. And then with a low moan, he grabbed me closer. One hand snaked into my hair, while his other arm pulled me closer. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pushed up to reach him better. He tugged firmly on my hair, and I gasped into his mouth, tipping my head back. He pushed his tongue into my mouth and gently licked at my own. I moaned and felt myself melting into him like a lovesick damsel, who had never been kissed. To be fair, I had never been kissed by a bloke before, or like this before. Malfoy's mouth moved expertly against mine, his tongue exploring all of my mouth making my knees weak.  
“Wait! That doesn’t negate any of my earlier points!” He cried, trying to push me away, his voice high and breathless. I sighed and buried my face in his chest, dropping my arms to his waist.   
“I’m attracted to you too, you git. All of you. You’re gorgeous and it’s been torture having you so close all the damn time and never being able to hold or touch you.” I tipped my head back and looked at him. “I know that setting you free while we are at sea is really pig-headed thing to do. But you’re free, I swear. After we find the treasure, I promise we will sail wherever you want and you’ll be free.” I bit back the desire to ask him to stay. It was too soon. 

Suddenly I felt myself heaved into the air, I gasped and clutched at him. I wrapped my legs around his waist and blinked at him before he resealed our lips as he crossed the room. He dumped me onto the bed he had been occupying since his injury.   
"You shouldn’t be carrying me." I murmured against his mouth.   
"Fuck you, Potter." He growled.   
"Is that not what you are trying to do?" I asked. He suddenly rolled off me, and we both lay there, staring at the ceiling, panting.   
"No matter how many looks, and loaded comments, all the flirtations. None of it changes the fact that you murdered my father and have since held me captive." He said bitterly. I sighed and rolled over to look at him, propped on my elbow.   
"You are free. I should have said something earlier. But I meant what I just said, after we find the treasure I will take you wherever you want to go, any island. England even. Where ever you want." I breathed. He blinked at me.   
"You mean that?" He whispered, a finger tracing my jaw.   
"Of course."   
"Am I a whore if I kiss you now?" He whispered, voice husky.   
"You would be a little whoreish yes. But I would always welcome it." I said, my voice barely audible. He smiled softly, and kissed me again, slow and sweet. I pulled him on top of me, threading my fingers through his hair. He was a delightfully warm weight on top of me, and he fit against me so well. I arched up into him, grinding our erections together. He gasped into my mouth and I took the opportunity to lick deeper into his mouth. He groaned and pulled away. I pouted up at him.   
“Relax Potter, I’m just removing my towel.” He chuckled.  
“Harry.” I breathed. He looked at me for a moment before kissing me again.   
“Harry, I do think that it is unfair that one of us is naked while you still have your shirt.” I laughed and sat up tearing the shirt off. We took a moment to look at each other. He was pale and slender with some pale scars crossing his chest. His cock was pale and slender like him, with the head a beautiful flushed rose color. He looked a bit self-conscious and looked down while I ogled him. “Hey stop that Draco. You are gorgeous. Just stunning.” I said and lunged forward to kiss his chest. I licked up his abs and pecks to suck a bruise into his neck. His breathe hitched and he pulled me close. I toppled us back onto the bed, lips still attached to his neck. He moaned and pulled away to kiss me deeply. I arched into hi again and we both groaned as our erections brushed each other. Not breaking the kiss, Draco moved his hand down between us and took our dicks in his hand. His nimble fingers reached almost around us both. I gasped at the feeling and he grinned before starting to pump his fist in an almost agonizingly slow rhythm. I keened and broke the kiss to pant into his shoulder. He mouthed at my shoulder as he continued to stroke us. “Oh, sweet Jesus Draco.” I gasped, he chuckled.   
“Have you ever done this before?” he breathed between kisses on my shoulder.   
“No, You ah! You would be the first man I have uh... ever been with.” I whispered. He pulled back and stopped his rhythm to stare at me. I flushed.   
“Great Captain Evans, you have a reputation of being a captain who cares not for gender, just a pretty face.” Draco muttered, brushing some hair back from my face with his other hand. I blushed deeper.   
“Yes well, I am attracted to both but have never been with a man. People will talk and I never stopped them.” I breathed. He grinned.   
“I am truly honored Harry.” He breathed before kissing me, hard. And then started pumping his fist again. I yelped and clung to him. He was panting too. He picked up his rhythm, speeding up and twisting his fingers over the heads of both of our cocks, making me gasp every time.   
“Draco, I’m….” I breathed. He smiled and kissed me slowly, and sloppily.   
“Come for me, Captain.” He growled softly. I keened again and arched up into him before coming all over his hand and our chests. He held me tight with his other arm and followed close behind me with his own release. He kissed me sloppily again and rolled off. We lay there and panted for a long moment.   
“God, that was amazing.” I breathed. He smirked and turned to look at me.   
“You’re welcome.” He said, reaching for his discarded towel and wiping us both down. Then he pulled the blankets over us and tucked me against his chest, nosing into my hair.   
“What are you doing?” I whispered. He laughed.   
“I’m holding you, Harry. It’s nice, now shut up and let me sleep.” I chuckled and snuggled closer, tangling out legs together.  
I drifted off, warm and content.  
"Harry darling, what are we going to do with all this crazy messy hair of yours?" My mother murmured leaning down to put her face next to mine so our green eyes were reflected back to us in the big mirror in front. I giggled and bumped into her. She chuckled and straightened to continue brushing my hair.   
"Just like your father's darling. His hair was always this wild. When we were in school he was always messing it up." She smiled fondly and ruffled my hair.   
"Mama where Dada?" I asked. Her hands stilled in my hair and she sighed.   
"A bad man took him away, darling. But some day we will all be together again, I promise." She whispered. I smiled and leaned back into her. She scooped me up and held me close for a moment. My vision waved, like I was staring through a water fall until it shifted. I was seven, crouching in the hall way outside the kitchen at my uncles' house. Sirius was banging pots and pans around and swearing. I was clutching a doll to my chest. It had been my mothers and I was still crying about her in the night at that point.   
"Sirius love, come on. We promised Lilly we wouldn’t tell him until he was old enough to understand. She wanted to protect him." Remus whispered.   
"He deserves to know!" Sirius bellowed making me jump and clutch the doll tighter. "He keeps asking why they died! He keeps begging me to tell him why! Three years living here and every night he asks me why! For three Christmas’s he has wished for Lilly and James. He doesn’t even remember James!" Sirius was screaming now, slamming a pot onto the counter.   
"I know. I know that he asks for them, I know that he cries at night because he misses her. I know, Sirius. But telling him that a mad man murdered them doesn’t help. Telling a seven-year-old who sleeps with a doll his mother owned and who cried when I said we couldn’t get married, that his parents were murdered by fucking Riddle doesn’t do anything but scare him." Remus soothed. Sirius sobbed and I heard him collide with Remus the way he always did, like Sirius' heart couldn’t stand the distance, his head thumping onto Remus’ chest. I peered around the corner to see them holding each other, Sirius sobbing into Remus, who was blinking back tears of his own.   
I woke up with the image of them burning in my mind. Sirius had always pretended to be hard and tough, but Remus had always been the rock of our family. I had always known that. I frowned without opening my eyes. There was a soft murmur and then fingers brushed through my hair. I smiled without opening my eyes. He chuckled.   
"Does this mean we are courting?" Draco asked, fingers trailing down my face. I opened my eyes and gazed at him.   
"I am a pirate, Draco. Does it need a name?" I answered, tucking some of his hair behind his ear. He sighed and looked down. He was lying on his stomach, propped on his elbows.   
"My mother believed in propriety, she said that good people waited until marriage before having sex. And she said that if people didn’t label something with me then they were using me." He whispered. "I don’t want to be used, Harry." He finally slid those silver eyes to me. I smiled.   
"How about, bedfellows?" I asked, smiling at him. He frowned. I blew out a sigh.   
"Draco, I care about you. But I don’t label things. Can we just leave it?" I asked kissing him before pushing myself out of bed.   
“Here,” He said sliding to the edges of the bed and running a hand down my back. “we won’t label it now, but eventually we need to. I am not some mistress ok?” He breathed. I smiled and nodded before moving to get dressed.  
The sun was just rising, bathing the room in orange light. I stretched and pulled on the clean pair of pants from last night. I winked at him, before I walked out on the deck to find myself standing in mist so thick I could hardly see. I carefully made my way to the helm where Ron was squinting around, glaring at the mist.   
"Bloody hell." I murmured.   
"Well said." Ron chuckled. "It was like a wall, we sailed right in. I’m keeping our heading but, its dangerous captain." He warned. I pulled the map from Ron's hands and spread it on the railing, bending close to see the tiny markings. I used one hand to hold back my hair.   
"We're close. Let’s stop the ship. We can take long boats to the main island. It looks like its surrounded by rocks. This is safer." I said, folding the map and tucking it into the waist band of my pants. Ron nodded and hurried below deck to raise the crew. In about a minute the deck is swarming with my crew, I can see their dark shapes running around through the mist.   
"Ah fuck! Can't see anything in the bloody mist." Draco muttered, as he materialized next to me. He was wrapped in my coat, the long flared black one that is probably stereotypical of pirate captains but is the only thing I have from my father. (I am well aware of how sentimental everything in my life is, thank you very much). Even with the mist swirling around us, tugging on our clothes, twinkling ominously at us, I stopped and stared. He is wearing the standard clothing that most crew members wear, loose cotton shirt and tight brown pants, tucked into his tall brown boots, and my black coat floating around him. He’s taller, but I have more muscles and am broader in general, so the sleeves fall around his hands, his hair floating around him like some halo. He reached up and pulled the coat closed around his throat and shivered.   
"I told you we shouldn’t be here." He whispered, glancing around. "We can’t see an attack coming. We are a sitting duck." I chuckled.   
"You constantly underestimate me, Draco." I said, watching him lurch as the ship stopped rather suddenly. He glared at me. I stepped closer.   
"You are wearing my coat. People are going to assume we are having sex." I murmured, smoothing back his hair, which was frizzing slightly in the mist. Draco swallowed loudly.   
"They can't see me Potter, and we are having sex." He snapped, weakly.   
"Oh? So, I could kiss you and they wouldn’t notice?" I breathed. He swallowed again.   
"I thought. uh what are we...what…. we haven’t…." he stammered before I reached up and kissed him, slow and firm. He was stiff for a moment, and then he melted, body leaning into me, hands in my hair. I pushed back, pulling him as close as possible and shoving my tongue in his mouth. He tasted wonderful, salty like the sea, sweet like coming home. I could have kissed him for all eternity, my ship moving gently under me, this incredible man moving against me.   
"Captain, if you ever come up for air, we could use some help!"  
I sighed against Draco's mouth and pulled back, to see my crew racing around the deck below, fighting, the fog had thinned enough so that I could see the fight. I gasped and pulled away.   
"Stay here, don’t do anything stupid!" I screamed, vaulting over the railing, and landing on the deck below sword drawn. I raced into the fray, sword clanging with the masked fighters. They all wore long dark robes and white masks resembling skulls. They were haunting, but dressed oddly for pirates, several were holding their robes in one hand and a sword in the other so that they didn't fall. Regardless of their dress, they were at risk of killing my crew so I didn’t spare them. I fought them, one by one blades clashing. Stepping in when my crew struggled or was pinned by one of them. My blood was pumping, and I knew I was grinning like an idiot, I loved a good sword fight.   
"Have a good snog, Captain?" Fred called as I whirled past.   
"Shut it!" I teased back. My crew was laughing now too, we had the upper hand and I have always been an excellent fighter. I am also known to merely take a man’s weapon and move on, leaving them alive but unable to fight. I loved fighting like this, the threat of death real enough to make you sweat, but not so close that you can’t laugh as you lunge at someone. Things were going great, I was in my pirate element, when there was a blood curdling scream. Everything seemed to freeze, time standing still as I turned slowly, to face the helm. A man in a long black cloak was holding a knife to Draco's throat.   
"The great Captain Harry Potter, or is it Evans? I can never keep track." The man said. His voice was high and cold. "You like my mist? Its magic. You see to you all its just mist. But to me, it shows me who each of you desires most. And it looks like you have fallen for one of my own." He said holding Draco close, practically purring in his ear from beneath the hood of his cloak. Around me the fighting had stopped. All eyes, masked and not, were staring at the two people at the helm. "Draco did wonderfully didn’t he?" The cloaked figure called. My blood turned cold.  
"You are working with these people?" Ginny shrieked from near the stairs where she was pinned under one of the masked fighter's sword.   
"Harry, it isn't what It looks like. Please, you have to believe me." Draco called, his grey eyes wide and pleading.   
"Oh, dear Draco, it is exactly what It looks like. You see, Captain, I knew you were in that pub that night. This whole time he has been working for me. I sent Draco here to bring you to me. And now he has. And better yet, you have fallen for him. Although, maybe your desire is less now that you know what a traitorous bitch he is. You have 24 hours to save him, and I suggest you come alone." He said, starting to turn away. "Oh, and if you need more motivation to come to me, maybe this will suffice." He tossed over his shoulder. He waved the hand not clutching a knife to Draco’s throat and an image of my mother appeared. It hung in the air like some grotesque portrait, only it moved displaying the same instant in time over and over: a pale hand closing around her throat and my    
mother screaming silently. There were several gasps from the crew, and a cackle from the man. "You see, I killed Lily and James Potter." I have a great roar of anguish and outrage and charged the helm. By the time I made it, blinded by rage, I didn’t notice that he and Draco had vanished, along with the masked people on my ship. I screamed in fury, a sound that echoed off rocks shrouded in mist around us. I collapsed on to the deck, hair falling in my face and let the fury consume me. Everything was deathly still, save for someone cautiously climbing the stairs toward me.   
"Harry..." Hermione voice was soft and unsteady.   
"Prepare a boat." I whispered. She paused and then stepped forward.   
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you." She breathed.   
"I said, prepare a boat." I growled. She sighed.   
"Harry..." I raised my head and glared at her. She took a step back from the force of my glare.   
"Somebody on this god damn boat prepare me a long boat now!" I screamed. No one moved "NOW." I snapped standing slowly, my body shaking with rage. Hermione and Ron exchanged looks. And then I was laughing.   
"You two honestly think I am not going after that guy?" I cried. "You don't know me at all. He killed her. He took my mother from me and then made me watch. And Draco..." my voice broke on his name. "I have to go, I have to." I whispered. "Please."   
"Then I am going with you." Ron called from below on the main deck.   
"Me too, and don't say I can't because I am a woman, I am going with you Harry James Potter." Hermione snapped, folding her arms at me and glaring. I glance between the two of them. And then sighed.   
"He said to come alone." I murmured.   
"Fuck that mate." Ron called, then spun around and bellowed for someone to get a long boat ready. Hermione brushed her hair out of her eyes and walked over to me, she raked a hand through my hair and pulled it into a tight pony tail at the base of my neck securing it with a leather chord tightly.   
"Put some shoes on, Captain." She huffed before hurrying down the stairs, smoothing back her own mess of hair. I hurried after her rushing into the cabin, ignoring the unmade bed and the ache in my chest, finding my boots and pulling them on. I grabbed my red bandana and secured it around my head. I sighed deeply and let the wave of rage and pain roll through me. I turned and stared at the bed, still rumpled from us, the pillows dented in an obvious way that indicated two people had slept there. I swallowed the sobs. There was soft tap on the door, so I swallowed and rushed out to the boat.


End file.
